What videogames are you playing in 2026?

[Ruin Explorer]

To me, that's even worse. "Hey, here's a bunch of plot hooks, but, don't actually follow up on them because they're not all that important." You are really not selling this to me.

"Hey, I want to like this game, but, game play is really frustrating." "Oh, that's okay. It's supposed to be frustrating and pointless" is hardly a strong selling point. Like I said, I loved BG 1 and 2. But, I'm just bouncing so hard off of 3 and I WANT to like this game based on how much I enjoyed the first two.

Like fair, but I would nuance this a bit.

First off, it's not that they're "not important" - a lot of the missable stuff feels big and important and has outcomes that matter and feel emotionally important, it's just not part of the critical path. BG3 has a much broader and more detailed "non-critical" path than is typical in RPGs, even high-production-value AAA ones. There are also multiple different critical path routes in all three acts. There's so much, and it's so well-done that you likely won't even realize you're missing anything until you've played through and read spoiler or other people's playthroughs or the like. That's genuinely unusual.

Re: "frustrating and pointless", I don't think anything in the game is meant to be that, it's just that that because the game takes a different approach to interactable objects, one more similar to Ultima 6/7 or Elder Scrolls, but even more extreme, there are a lot of objects you can interact with, but don't have to. I think most people don't find that frustrating, but if you're used to games where things are only interactable at all if they matter a lot (which is most RPGs that aren't DOS/BG3/TES), I could see this getting in the way, especially if you feel compelled to interact with them. I know the first time I played it, I was trying to read every book, pick up and sell every lootable item and so on, because in a lot of games that is the right way to play, but it isn't here.

I think part of it may be familiarity too - I'm guessing you've played BG1/2 a fair bit, which themselves have truly horrible UIs, and as you're part-way through your first run of BG3, which has this clunky UI and totally different approach to interaction, it may well be that you're still essentially learning how to play. I know I was at that point. Have you got to The Grove at least? Probably the worst way to play Act 1, but one I've seen people fall into is to work around The Grove, and like, either miss it, or refuse to go there, but it really pulls Act 1 together. Sorry if you mentioned this and I forgot.